EIGHT

Bonjour!

This is my last week in the MTC! The time that I've had here has been nothing short of life-changing! I will always remember these weeks. I've got a pretty good handle on French now and a solid witness of the gift of tongues! I am very excited to land in Montréal and hear the Quebecois accent! I've actually been pretty worried about that for a while now... I want to speak Parisian French as much as possible so I've been working on my pronunciation and building a strong Parisian accent since the first week. If you don't know what Quebecois sounds like, just imagine the super thick southern accents in the US and apply that to French. I probably shouldn't worry about it really, I'll be fine! In the past eight weeks I've come closer to the Gospel than ever before! I honestly cannot express just how much I believe in living the Gospel with exactness. In times past, I've looked at the promises the Lord gives us and have seen them as words on a page. I've never really felt super sure about them before but I can surely promise you now that by living and keeping the commandments you will be blessed. Days will be productive. You will feel better about the things you choose to spend your time on. Through studying the scriptures you will be aided in your schoolwork and professional life. The Lord loves us and wants to bless us! I've learned that based on the eternal Law of the Harvest, all blessings are predicated upon obedience to certain principles. There are certain special blessings that the Lord has in store for us which require our asking for them! In the Bible Dictionary and the Index of the French Livre de Mormon, we learn that prayer is a form of work, and that often times it is all that is needed for the Lord to bless us. Please start living the Gospel if you aren't already doing so! If you already are, pick one aspect where you can improve! And if you don't have the Gospel in your life and you don't know where to find it, find the missionaries through "mormon.org" (If you're reading this on my blog, just click "I BELIEVE" in the column on the right!)

Alrighty, so as for this week!

To finish off last Tuesday, Elder Bednar came to talk to all of the missionaries at the devotional. Since we didn't hear any of the news about the changes that were going to take place in the MTC he filled us in and then shared a few of the comments from the news. He had a few hilarious things to say about the conspiracies of why the age change came around. He called it "Apostolic Humor" and then explained very simply why the change was made. He said there were two reasons: 1) This is the Lord's work, 2) He will hasten his work. And that's it! I wish you could've heard everything that he and his wife had to say about General Conference and missionary work.

Honestly, all I can remember about Wednesday was the class we had at night. (It's funny, looking back at pretty much any day here is hard because we do the same thing day after day after day. I can see why people have a hard time at the MTC, but really all it takes is a good attitude and the right perspective. If you look at life day by day (especially life in the MTC!) it's easy to get overwhelmed! So take President Monson's advice from last year and "Keep your head up!") Anyways, the class was great. We read "My Calling" by Bruce R. McConkie which really opened my eyes!  We practiced teaching lessons by only using questions (so hard!) which helped me appreciate the idea of teaching simply. I'm looking at my daily planner right now (that's another thing, plan! Take time to plan your days out the night before! And if you don't have the time, plan the time! You will be so productive, I promise you!) and I just saw something that I wrote about the lesson. "Don't be apologetic when teaching the Word of Wisdom. Look through the lens of love to see with your heart."

Thursday was so much fun! In the morning when I went to pick up our mail I got an invitation for my district to host next Wednesday (tomorrow!) We were all really excited about that news! It will be fun to go full circle and bring some of the new missionaries in tomorrow. At TRC we taught our best lesson yet! Remember the "la mort vs. amour" lady? Well we had the chance to teach her again along with a student from BYU! We shared a few of our favorite talks from General Conference and talked about what we can do more to study the words of the living prophets. I am really excited for the talks to be released in French! Conference talks in French have been one of the best tools for my language study. Elder Keenan and I planned for a few of our lessons which went great!

On Friday we got our travel plans! I'll be leaving to Montréal a week from today! We fly out at 7:50 AM from the Salt Lake Airport on the 23rd! I am so excited to get out there! On Friday we taught Lyze and answered her questions about General Conference. It was fun to explain some of the really simple things about the organization of the Church that I really don't think about all that often. General Conference is such a blessing! Don't forget what you've learned from that weekend! I know that I won't! I watched a lot of the "Life of Jesus Christ" Bible videos that the Church has made. Those are amazing! (Sorry, I'm running out of time!)

How about the weather on Saturday! Wasn't that awesome? I love the clouds in the fall! We played an awesome game of volleyball out on the sand and my feet went totally numb! We logged into Family Search to get familiar with the site. The Church is getting really serious about using family history work in missionary work. I just want to throw out a quick Merci Beaucoup! to my two lovely Grandmothers and all of the work that they've put into our family history!

On Sunday our Branch Presidency got a little change up. One of the counselors is going to be serving a mission in France in a few weeks. That will be cool! Okay, this is probably the coolest thing ever. After we finished with all of our Sunday duties I got on Family Search again and (you aren't going to believe this...) I found a line that I could trace all the way back to Adam! It was seriously amazing! I took a video and talk about it a little more in there (I seriously have no more time to write) so I'll send that home to my family. But can you believe that? All the way back to Adam!

Monday was great! That's all!

This morning I went to the Temple for what might be the last time in two years. It was amazing as always!

I love all of you! It would probably be best if you send mail from now on to the Mission Office in Montréal. I'll have my mom change the address up top!

Elder Ellis

Sent from my iPhone (Haha...)